Scene of the Week: Battle of the Boogaloo
It is safe to say that the Cannon Group is synonymous with the action genre. Their biggest stars were Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, Michael Dudikoff and Jean-Claude Van Damme. With that stable of talent Cannon gave us such classics as Death Wish 3, Invasion U.S.A., American Ninja and Bloodsport. Later Cannon would roll the dice on some bigger budget, more high profile action films like Cobra starring Sylvester Stallone, Masters of the Universe and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
Cannon was responsible for ushering in the ninja craze that swept the world in the 1980’s starting with their three collaborations with the legendary Shô Kosugi… but we can also thank the Cannon Group for giving Hollywood its first breakdancing movie with 1984’s Breakin’. Breakin’ was such a hit that Cannon fast tracked the sequel to be released in the same calendar year as the original, that film is the almost mythical Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
The Breakin’ movies were unlike anything else Cannon had produced before. The PG rating meant you would not get the usual Cannon levels of violence and adult language. Any chance for nudity was off the table as well. But the plus side was that a bigger audience would be able to buy a ticket and watch the movie in the theater, which no doubt helped make Breakin’ Cannon’s most lucrative picture of 1984. From my own personal experience I can tell you the one and only Cannon movie I was able to experience at the theater was Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo featured a memorable fight scene of sorts as our heroes Ozone and Turbo (played by breakdancing and hip hop pioneers Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quinones and Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers respectively) engage in some dance combat with their rivals known as the Electro-Rocks. Some may say there was really not a definitive winner in this dance battle since you didn’t have one guy on the ground riddled with bullets or with a shuriken in between his eyes, but I say there was a definitive winner, THE AUDIENCE.
Sit back and enjoy some poppin’, some lockin’ and some make shift nunchaku in this week’s Scene of the Week…
